Soliticor-General Jose Calida said on Tuesday that he wants lawyer Jude Sabio disbarred over his move to file a case at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, to prosecute President Rodrigo Duterte and 11 other fellow respondents without basis.
Sabio implicated the respondents for the crime of mass murder and asked the international court to prosecute them for crimes against humanity over complicity in the matter of the so-called Davao Death Squad during the stint of Duterte as mayor of Davao City.
Calida asserted that ICC has no jurisdiction. Malacañang and the Philippine National Police (PNP), on the other hand, would express dismay if the ICC would take the matter seriously.
The police denied there was any instance of state-sponsored killing in the vicious anti-drug campaign being waged by the Duterte Administration.
The complaint hinges heavily on the revelations of the confessed Davao Death Squad leader, former police Senior Supt 3 Arturo Lascañas.
For his part, Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella said: “It would really be disappointing if the court took the word of admitted murderer as the basis for action.”
